1 Kings - Chapters 9-10

Solomon, the third king of Israel, asked the Lord for wisdom and was blessed with riches and honor. He built a palace, a temple for the Lord, and other structures. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the temple, and the glory of the Lord filled it. Solomon blessed the people and prayed for them. The celebration lasted 14 days. The Lord appeared to Solomon again and made a covenant with him. Solomon engaged in various activities, including giving towns to Hiram and building up cities. He had a large number of horses and imported them from Egypt. Solomon received gold and spices from the Queen of Sheba. He accumulated great wealth and exceeded all other kings in riches and wisdom. However, he failed to comply with several requirements for kings outlined in Deuteronomy. Jesus referenced Solomon's splendor and advised not to worry about material things but to seek the kingdom of God first. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy, busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at dab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are covering chapters 9 and 10 of 1 Kings. Solomon is the third king of Israel, and he asked the Lord for wisdom to lead his people, and the Lord was so pleased that he promised to also give Solomon riches in honor. Chapter 3, verse 13. We have seen that Solomon is wise in judicial, administrative, intellectual, and political matters, and these chapters place him at his height. Chapters 5 through 8 tell of Solomon building his palace, a second palace for his Egyptian wife, a colonnade, a throne hall, and the hall of justice, and these took 14 years to build. His special building was the temple of the Lord with all the furnishings. Once it was finished, the priest carried the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies, and chapter 8, verse 10 tells us, when the priest withdrew from the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord, and the priest could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple. Solomon blessed the people, did a prayer of dedication, and blessed the people one more time, and he said, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is no other. First Kings, chapter 8, verse 60. The celebration lasted 14 days, and the people blessed the king and went home joyfully and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel. Chapter 9 begins, when Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. Now the first time, which was in First Kings, chapter 3, verses 4 through 15, was in a dream, and that was when the Lord told Solomon, ask for whatever you want me to give you. This was when he asked for wisdom. Now in chapter 6, verse 11, we learn that the word of the Lord came to Solomon about the temple, but we don't know how, but it was a quote word from the Lord, not the quote appearance of the Lord. This time the Lord told Solomon he had heard his prayer about the temple, and he has put his name there forever. The Lord's eyes and heart will always be there. Then comes the ifs. If Solomon and if his sons walk according to the ways of the Lord, and observe the Lord's laws and decrees, then he will always have a man on the throne of Israel, but if not, the Lord said, quote, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my name. He goes on to say that if they disobey this temple, which is now imposing, in other words beautiful and awe of people, will one day be scoffed, because the people have forsaken the Lord their God, and have embraced other gods. This will bring disaster. Again, this is a picture of the future of Israel. The rest of chapter 9 tells of Solomon's other activities during his final 20 years as king. He gave 20 towns to Hiram king of Tyre because of his help with supplies for the building project and some gold, yet we find that Hiram was not pleased with them and called them good for nothing. Now what we don't know is if Solomon purposefully gave him insignificant towns, or if the king just viewed them that way. We learned of Solomon's forced labor that was needed for the building projects, and verses 21 and 22 tell us that the non-Jews who lived among the Jews were slaves, but the Israelites were not slaved, but they were still forced to work. We also see that not only did Solomon build up Jerusalem, but Hazor, Megiddo, and Gether, and other cities throughout for storing things and for his chariots and horses. Verse 16 tells us Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer, he had set it on fire, he killed its Canaanite inhabitants, and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter Solomon's wife. What is interesting is that the king of Egypt was able to take down a city that the Israelites never could. Solomon also built ships that would go out of the Red Sea, and he worked with Hiram king of Tyre and his sailors who knew the sea and they sailed out for gold and other things. In the middle of his accomplishments, verse 25 says, three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations. Chapter 10 verses 1-13 tells the story of the queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon. She came with a great caravan, and she came to talk to him about all that was on her mind. Nothing was too difficult for Solomon to answer. She was overwhelmed by his wisdom, but also by his riches and honor. Verse 9 records the queen to say, Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness. The queen gave Solomon gold and tons of spices from her land. Verse 13 says, King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her assistants to her own country. The rest of chapter 10 describes Solomon's splendor. Now as we look back at Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14-20 with the regulations of the kings of Israel, let's see how Solomon is doing in verses 14-29 of 1 Kings. Number one, he is to be someone the Lord has chosen. Check. Number two, he is to be an Israelite. Check. Number three, he is not to acquire great numbers of horses for himself. 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 26, Solomon accumulated chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. The question is how many is a great number? This seems like a lot to me, so let's say nope. Number four, in getting the horses, the king is not to quote, make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, you are not to go back this way. 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 28, Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Ku. The royal merchants purchased them from Ku. They imported a chariot from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150. Now that's a no-no. Number five, he is not to acquire many wives because his heart will be turned away from the Lord. That is covered in chapter 11. So far all we know is that he had one wife who is the daughter of the king of Egypt. Number six, he must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 14, the weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. It continued saying he made 200 large shields which covered the warrior's entire body and 300 small shields, all made out of solid gold. His magnificent throne was overlaid with fine gold. All his goblets and household articles in the palace were solid gold. Verse 21b says nothing was made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's day. Solomon failed this requirement of the Lord. The seventh one states he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of the law and it is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees. There is no record of any of the kings so far doing that but it seems like a safe assessment that due to his actions he did not do that so I beg NOPE. The last requirement is he is not to consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. We will find out in chapter 11 if he turns from the law of the Lord. Verses 23 and 24 say King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year everyone who came brought a gift, articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. So out of the 8 requirements Solomon had done 2. He was chosen by the Lord and he was an Israelite. There are 2 we do not know yet did he gather many wives and did he consider himself better than his brothers and consider himself above the law of God. That leaves 4 that he has failed. Now one thing to remember is that his failure in these God given directions are an issue of if Solomon will have a descendant on the throne and a question of what will happen to this temple that he has built. Will it become a byword to people passing by? I'd like to end today in the New Testament with Jesus who referenced these passages. In Matthew chapter 6 verses 24-34 Jesus started by saying no one can serve 2 masters, either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. He then said not to worry about the things of life like what you eat, drink or wear for life is so much more than clothes. He mentioned the birds of the air and how God takes care of them and then he said in verses 29-30 yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Jesus tells us not to worry about such things because our Heavenly Father knows we need them. Instead verse 33 says but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Then Jesus mentioned the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon in Matthew chapter 12 verse 42 which says the Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom and now one greater than Solomon is here. What Jesus meant was this non-Jewish woman knew the wisdom of Solomon and was willing to travel a great distance to come and see him to seek wisdom and yet one greater than Solomon is here, Jesus the son of man, the son of God, the son of David and he is full of wisdom even more than Solomon and yet even the Jewish leaders wanted nothing to do with him. Jesus who is the king of that kingdom of God and of righteousness is at our disposal if we seek him. He knows our needs, our wants and our desires and if we seek him first like Solomon started out to do, he will give us everything we need. Is there something you are worried about? Tell him about it. He wants to hear from you. Even the Queen of Sheba knew that the Lord was gracious because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel and that love extends to all believers in Christ. John 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life. Today if you have heard his voice like Solomon did in the beginning, let's heed the words of the Lord. Until next time and thank you so very much for listening.